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Top Beaumont exec leaving for 'other opportunities'

Beaumont Health System, Royal Oak, is losing one of its rising administrative stars, and health system executives say it is not related to the pending business deal with Dearborn-based Oakwood Healthcare Inc. and Botsford Hospital in Farmington Hills.

Tom Brisse, Beaumont’s executive vice president of operations, has announced he plans to leave the three-hospital system effective May 15, according to Beaumont CEO Gene Michalski in a letter to physicians this morning.

Brisse declined to talk with me about his decision to leave Beaumont, where he has spent the last 26½ years.

Colette Stimmell, Beaumont’s director of corporate communications, said Brisse’s departure was a personal choice and he is pursing other opportunities.

“He is a great leader. We are sorry to see him go and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors,” said Stimmell in an email. “His decision was unrelated to our affiliation talks.”

Health systems' 'affiliation' talks far along

Beaumont-Oakwood-Botsford spokesman Matt Friedman said discussions continue between the three hospital groups about forming a new health system.

“As announced in March, this includes legal processes and due diligence. For now, there’s no final agreement to announce but the organizations are making good progress in their discussions,” said Friedman, co-founder of Farmington Hills-based Tanner Friedman, in an email.

Physician sources close to the Beaumont-Oakwood-Botsford talks tell me that discussions on the deal are far along and there is “no stopping it now.”

“If quality and value are the keys going forward, many see this as simply a business deal,” one physician said. “The talks are being handled by the lay leadership, again with physician leaders in their usual support role.”

Physician staffing and practice models between Beaumont, Oakwood and Botsford are more similar than the employed staff model of the Henry Ford Medical Group, said another physician.

“We are not competing with Henry Ford Medical Group. The hospital systems are not in the back yard as was Ford-Beaumont. The systems (Beaumont, Oakwood and Botsford) are spread out over a large geographic area,” the physician said. “(Management) came out with the phrase ‘affiliation’ in which the medical staffs remain separate. That provides some comfort level to physicians,” he said.

Here are the first two paragraphs of the systems’ news release about beginning of talks:

“Beaumont Health System, Botsford Health Care and Oakwood Healthcare have signed a letter of intent and begun exclusive negotiations about combining their operations into a new health care system.

“The boards of the three not-for-profit organizations have approved a letter of intent calling for formation of a new, $3.8 billion health system that would combine assets, liabilities and operations under unified executive and board leadership.”